“Honest disagreement is often a good sign of progress.”
Gandhi

“I argue very well. Ask any of my remaining friends. I can win an argument on any topic, against any opponent. People know this, and steer clear of me at parties. Often, as a sign of their great respect, they don’t even invite me.”
Dave Barry, American humorist, author, journalist


“Couples who never argue are 35 per cent more likely to divorce, On the surface, that seems like a strange finding, since we associate arguments with bad outcomes, but an inability to share frustration is a dangerous thing. If you don’t argue, [frustrations] build up within you until they get bigger and bigger.”
David Niven, psychologist, Florida Atlantic University and author of The 100 Simple Secrets of Relationships.

“Many times, often with the best of intentions, people at work decide it’s more productive to remain silent about their differences than to air them. But as new research….shows, silencing doesn’t smooth things over or make people more productive. It merely pushes differences beneath the surface and can set in motion powerfully destructive forces.”
Leslie Perlow and Stephanie Williams, “Is Silence Killing Your Company?” Harvard Business Review

“No tree becomes rooted and sturdy unless many a wind assails it. For by its very tossing it tightens its grip and plants its roots more securely; the fragile trees are those that have grown in a sunny valley.”
Seneca the Younger

“I sat at a table where were rich food and wine in abundance, and obsequious attendance, but sincerity and truth were not; and I went away hungry from the inhospitable board.”
Walden